Daniel Kaluuya teases his upcoming character in Nope. Nope is directed by Jordan Peele and will mark the director’s third horror film following his groundbreaking features Get Out and Us. Peele’s new film focuses on residents of a California ranch town that are faced with a mysterious airborne threat. Nope stars Kaluuya alongside Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Barbie Ferreira, Brandon Perea, and Michael Wincott.
Over the course of the last few months, revelations regarding specifics of Nope’s story and characters have been slow going. Up until the most recent Nope trailer, plot details were kept well under wraps, with Peele suggesting that the sky-born threat to Palmer and Kaluuya’s town was alien-like, but not much else. The final trailer fleshed out more of the plot, which seems to focus on Kaluuya and Palmer’s characters’ attempt, with the help of a media team, to prove the existence of the alien force. Much still remains unknown about the plot, however, such as who Yeun’s mysterious rancher character is and what role he serves in the movie.
Now, Kaluuya hints at a few Nope details through revelations about his character. In a recent interview with THR, Kaluuya mentions that he and Palmer’s characters, who are brother and sister in Nope, are “estranged.” While they are closely bonded, Kaluuya suggests that the two have tension behind that bond that is seen on screen:
“They’re estranged. He’s disappointed in her; she’s sick of him. But there’s this bond that you have each other’s back no matter what bullshit happens.”
Kaluuya also provides context as to how “inward” his character is on screen:
“He’s still, genuinely still. A lot of my other characters have been still because they’re covering the chaos in them, but he’s actually calm.”
The insight as to Kaluuya and Palmer’s relationship in Nope gives more weight to some of the details in the most recent trailer. In the trailer, Palmer’s character returned to the California town following the death of her and Kaluuya’s father. If this is after a period of estrangement, one can imagine that this sibling reintroduction was not as seamless as it may appear. Furthermore, it will be interesting to see how the apparent serenity of Kaluuya’s character plays out within the film. As aliens threaten his town, his character’s calm center may be gradually broken down, leading to interesting psychological elements in the film.
While Kaluuya’s comments do not reveal a lot more about the plot of Nope, they certainly suggest a great deal of complexity behind Peele’s characters in the film. Even with this new information revealed, there is a lot to look forward to going into Nope. With Peele as the driving creative force behind the film, Nope is sure to have its fair share of scares and surprises when it hits theaters in July.
Source: THR
